DESPITE passing just two GSCEs at school - catering lecturer Nick Hatch has cooked-up grub for legends from the world of sport and star 
actors. The 42-year-old culinary expert proved he’s no pudding and took time out of his busy day working at Accrington and Rossendale’s bustling catering department to talk to My Life about how TV cook Gordon Ramsey is driving wannabe chefs out of the kitchen.

Q. What time do you get up?

A. I’m up at 6.30am every morning with the little boy. He’s four so it’s nice to spend a bit of time with him before I go out to work because it’s not a nine till five job. Last night I finished at 8pm. In this industry you’ve got to be willing to put the hours in, if you don’t it just won’t work.

Q. What’s your daily routine?

A. Every day is so varied. I feel lucky to be doing something that I enjoy so much. At school I wasn’t very academic I only came out with two qualifications but when I went to college everything seemed to click into place because I was interested in it and wanted to do it.

I get involved and help the chefs because the students work in a real life environment at a unit in the town's Globe Centre. We have a brasserie and a hotel with seven rooms. We serve a variety of customers from business people having a conference to the general public stopping off for a coffee and we have themed evenings with guest chefs. It’s good because it gives the students a real basis for what it’s going to be like working in a restaurant. They go away from here much better prepared for working life - although when I explain that in some places you can start at 7am and don’t finish until 1am they look at you like you’ve gone mad. But it’s true. To be chef you have got to be 100 per cent dedicated and its got to be a passion or else you won’t last in the industry.

Q. What do you love about the role?

Getting paid at the end of the month is one of the best bits! No two days are ever the same. I’m thankful that I’m not stuck in a factory which I would hate. A plus is that you get to meet so many different people. I’ve worked in a variety of places including hotels like the Chester Grosvenor and the Caledonian in Edinburgh.

The kids at the college are great. But it is getting harder. People get easy money working in a factory and get to finish at set times. I don’t think the likes of Gordon Ramsey are helping the situation either. We have more males than females training here — that’s probably a lot to do with the hours you have to work. But the comments he came out with about women not being able to cook to save their lives was nothing but a publicity stunt. Although  that kind of statement does nothing to help encourage females into the profession.

Q. What’s the strangest thing that has ever happened to you?

I wooed my girlfriend when I made her a chocolate cake for her Birthday — she was really impressed with that one.

And although I’ve never really had any major disasters in the kitchen, when I cooked at home for my wife I made a lamb curry — it was so awful I spat it out. I don’t know what went wrong but it still gets brought up to this day — it was awful.

I cooked for ex-Manchester United star and football legend Bobby Charlton when I was working at the White Hart in Salisbury. He went for something really simple like steak and vegetables. He ate it all so that was a compliment I suppose. I have also cooked for TV and film star Donald Sinden.

Q. What has been your proudest moment?

A. I bet everybody who has children says this but it was the birth of my son, Harry Hatch. For some reason everyone laughs at the name but he’ll be a star one day, although I wouldn’t want him to become a chef — I know how hard it is. That is defiantly the proudest moment of my life. I didn’t settle down until I was in my 30s. You can’t really if you are a chef because it takes over your life but having a child is life changing.

Q. What’s been the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

A. A head chef told me to follow your heart and never give up and if you have got a goal always go for it. That’s something I try and pass on. The only regret I have was that I didn’t travel more. It’s a big world out there but not as big as it used to be. Places are so accessible now. I would recommend any young chef to travel to places like Australia and America. All you need is a suitcase and your knives and you can go anywhere. To get work in foreign places would give you so much experience - that’s my only regret in life.